Recently, Dwell had the opportunity to tour the San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission headquarters, which seemed appropriate as we gear up for the special bathrooms and spas issue (hitting newsstands in early November). SFPUC recently revamped their building to be LEED Platinum and installed a wastewater management system called the "Living Machine."

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, ARCHIVE, a non-profit whose efforts center on the use of housing as a strategy for preventing illness and providing care among the poor, sponsored a design competition called "Healthy Homes." In an effort to limit the spread of Tuberculosis (one of the leading infectious diseases in Haiti), 147 teams of architects, engineers, public health workers, and doctors designed homes that are environmentally conscious, sensitive to the economic and cultural environment. Additionally, they use local building materials and construction techniques wherever possible and are easily replicable . What was interesting about this competition is that it isn't simply a "design exercise"; the winning entries will now inform new housing construction in the Artibonite region of the country. Click through the slideshow below to see the five winning designs.

We teamed up with Kohler in hot pursuit of a common enemy—the water hog—and we asked you to submit your water-saving solutions for a “Water Wise” future. The submissions flooded in (pun intended) and our team of judges have finished wading through the entries. We are pleased to announce the following winning submissions.